German Publisher Kowtows to the CCP, Destroys Copies of ‘China Virus’ Children’s Book

BEIJING, CHINA - DECEMBER 02: Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks with Russian President V
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Kurt Zindulka

A German children’s book that stated that the coronavirus came from China has been pulped after the publisher caved to pressure from Communist Party diplomats and local Chinese people.

The book which was published in the summer of last year is entitled A Corona Rainbow for Anna and Moritz. The book tried to help children understand the radically different world they found themselves in following the pandemic.

In the picture book, the childrens’ father says: “The virus comes from China and has spread out from there across the whole world,” according to The Times.

The book was based on advice from a tropical medicine institute in Hamburg.

Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus that the virus emerged from Wuhan, in Central China, the communist regime has consistently denied this, even promulgating unfounded conspiracies such as the U.S. military bringing the virus into China.

The CCP has also tried to attempt to liken the use of the phrase “China virus” — favoured by former U.S. President Donald Trump — to racism, though the CCP has not made the same objections over the use of the so-called ‘UK variant’.

A social media campaign from Chinese people in Germany saw many take to Amazon to give the book a one-star rating, claiming the book was “spreading racism among children in Germany”. Some Chinese residents also vowed to launch legal claims against the publisher and to protest against “racism and discrimination”.

The campaign was later picked up by the Chinese consulate in Hamburg, who “lodged solemn representations against the publisher”.

An article from the CCP mouthpiece The Global Times said: “The Chinese community believes a simple apology is not enough and asked for the recall of the book.”

A Chinese lawyer in Germany quoted by the propaganda outlet said that the book has “caused psychological trauma to Chinese community, especially to the kids. For such reasons, Chinese people in Germany had a stronger reaction than usual about this children’s book that may trigger racial discrimination and hatred.”

Kowtowing to the pressure campaign, the Carlsen publishing house apologised and decided to destroy copies of the book.

“The statement on the origins of the virus that a child encounters in the book reflected the state of the reporting at the time,” the publisher said.

“We wouldn’t put it that way today. If the phrases have hurt the feelings of any of our readers, we are very sorry. This wasn’t what we intended and we apologise to those affected.

“The copies that are still available will be destroyed. We have asked for the next edition to be corrected,” the company announced.

Communist China is no stranger to book burning and other censorious tactics stretching back to the time of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, in which countless religious icons, buildings and books were destroyed by the young Red Guards.

More recently, in 2019 a library in Zhenyuan county in Northwest China burned a collection of books deemed to be politically incorrect.

The library said that it removed “illegal publications, religious publications and deviant papers and books, picture books and photographs” in order to “fully exert the library’s role in broadcasting mainstream ideology.”

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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